Laquan McDonald (right) walks on a road before he was shot 16 times by police Officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago, in this still image taken from a police vehicle dash camera video shot Oct. 20, 2014, and released by Chicago police Nov. 24, 2015. Photo: Chicago Police Department/Handout/Reuters

Attorneys for Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke leave a court building after a bond hearing in Chicago, Nov. 24, 2015. Van Dyke was charged with murder Tuesday in the October 2014 shooting of a black teenager. Photo: Reuters

An autopsy chart shows the wounds suffered by Laquan McDonald, 17, who was fatally shot in October 2014. Photo: Cook County Medical Examiner's Office

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Video from a police car's dashboard camera, showing the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, was released Tuesday. McDonald was shot 16 times in October 2014 by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and denied bail.

Earlier reports said the dashcam video was "graphic and violent" and "difficult to watch," as described by Van Dyke's attorney Dan Hebert, WMAQ-TV in Chicago reported. An attorney for the McDonald family called the footage a brutal "execution," according to CBS News. A judge had ordered police to publicly release the video by Wednesday.

Prior to the video's release, city officials expressed concern about possible riots in Chicago. Police Chief Garry McCarthy called for protesters to respond peacefully to the footage at a Tuesday evening news conference that addressed the release of the video.

"We will be intolerant of criminal behavior in Chicago," McCarthy said.

Those who have seen the video describe McDonald walking away from the nine officers on the scene while carrying a small knife.

"The first shot or two seem to spin him on the ground. He falls down. He's down on the ground, and for the next 30 seconds or so, in this video, the officer just continues to shoot," said Jeff Neslund, who represents the McDonald family. "What you see are graphic puffs of smoke rising from Laquan and intermittently his body twitching, in reaction to the shots."